A powerful armed group, known for smuggling people from Libya, is seeking legitimacy and state security jobs from the Tripoli government in exchange for stopping migrant boats from leaving the coast of Sabratha for Italy, a senior group member said.

More than 40 million people were trapped as slaves last year in forced labour and forced marriages, according to the first joint effort by key anti-slavery groups to estimate the number of victims worldwide of the international crime.

Commission Vice President for the Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip debriefed EURACTIV.com following a recent meeting of the EU ministers responsible for development in Tallinn, where “Digital for development” was one of the agenda items.

Former UN climate Chief Christiana Figueres, one of the architects of the Paris Agreement, has called on the European Union to step up regulatory action against deforestation in the global south by tackling emissions of imported agricultural goods, like beef, soy and palm oil.

The European Commission and a large part of the European Parliament back the use of development aid for security purposes. But some call this a diversion that will come at the expense of the poorest beneficiaries. EURACTIV France reports.

One trillion dollars. This “global stimulus” could change the world if a 5% tax hike is imposed on the “top decile” – the 10% richest segment of the population, a report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is proposing.

The world must ditch austerity and economic neoliberalism and undertake a global "New Deal" to rebalance the global economy and achieve prosperity for all, the UN trade and development agency UNCTAD said in a report on Thursday (14 September).

UN Secretary-General António Guterres and the UN Security Council yesterday (13 September) urged Myanmar to end violence against the majority-Buddhist country’s Rohingya Muslims that has forced some 400,000 people to flee to Bangladesh.

A third of the planet’s land is severely degraded and fertile soil is being lost at the rate of 24 billion tonnes a year, according to a new United Nations-backed study that calls for a shift away from destructively intensive agriculture. EURACTIV's media partner, The Guardian, reports.

To say the EU’s ability to promote values through external action is declining may be an understatement. This time the observation is made in a report aimed at improving and making more coherent Union diplomacy and the way the bloc's taxpayer money is spent.

Facing a backlash in Europe over palm oil's environmental toll, the world's top producers are scrambling to find new markets and even striking unusual barter deals, such as exchanging Sukhoi fighter-bombers for the edible oil.

The economic disorganisation of Syrian society, lost connectivity and destruction of business networks has an impact on GDP 20 times bigger than the destruction of buildings, World Bank officials have told EURACTIV.com.

After years of financial scarcity, France increased its development aid budget for the second consecutive year. However, uncertainties persist over its aid trajectory over the next five years. EURACTIV France reports.

Migrants have become the focus of the EU's aid strategy. As priority is given to stemming migrant flows in the short-term, long-term development goals are forgone, tarnishing the EU's image as a global development actor, writes Fanny Voitzwinkler.

A panel discussion at the Bled Strategic Forum highlighted the experience of West Africa in the common management of the water resources over a large area and progress in improving cooperation in an even larger Central Asia.

Around 30% of the world's population still do not have access to safe drinking water and 60% do not have safe sanitation, but lack of access to sanitation affects women more than men, Bruno Tisserand explains in the aftermath of World Water Week, hosted in Stockholm last week.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced a “considerable effort” to increase the budget dedicated to development aid from now until 2022. But surprisingly, the budget for 2018 will remain unchanged. And the focus on security enrages NGOs. EURACTIV France reports.

African and European leaders gathered in Paris on Monday (28 August) to broach the subject of migration, where support was expressed for moving the EU’s external border into Africa itself, so that asylum applications can be handled locally. EURACTIV France reports.

Europe will remain an important supplier of agricultural goods in the future but the greatest untapped potential lies in Africa, which could become the “bread basket” for the rest of the world, the president of Yara, a multinational fertiliser and crop nutrition company, told EURACTIV.